I am trying to mount a CB antenna on the back of my Wrangler. I installed the mounting bracket that goes behind the left tail light and I bought a 5' firestik II antenna but it didn't come with any connectors or hardware or anything. What sort of hardware/connectors do I need to put the antenna in the bracket? Thanks!

Go to your local CB shop (gotta be lots in Georgia),and tell them what you need. They should be able to hook you up without any trouble. There's more to hooking up a CB than just applying power and an antenna. Groundis crucial and you need to calibrate your SWR so that your signal is being transmitted and not going back into your radio. That can fry it and it also exposes you to dangerous radiation.

Believe it or not there are no CB shops in Georgia! Either that or I just didn't look hard enough. I had to order everything online. I guess I really need to find a store because I didn't know all that! Thanks for your help!

There are a few big truck stops around here that have fairly extensive cb shops in them.

yea, thats where most of them are, if you can find a big rig shop of some sort or even a shipping warehouse. they should be able to help ya out

There is a small one in Fairburn, 2 miles from my office. There is a huge truck stop off of I-285 right around Moreland Ave. that had alot of stuff, too.

yep, got my stuff at a truck stop

what about Radio Shack?? (haven't been in one myself) - anyone know?

Radio Shack has great junk.
I picked up a $25 CB that fit where my ashtray went in my Tacoma. I liked it because A) it was cheap and B) it was small.
It worked great for about 4 months, then it was trash.
I'm fine with buying coax, connectors, or tools to crimp it from them, but leave the electronics to a real mfg.

I bought a Cobra 18 WX ST ll 40 channel CB and a 5' Firestik II antenna. Do I need to go somewhere to get it calibrated or can I do it myself? I think I need to get a SO-329 Coax connector and a 3/8"x24 threaded adapter to put it on the bracket. Is this right? Any suggestions help greatly!!

I had a friend calibrate mine. The thing he used is called an SWR meter or something.

As for the rest, I dont know.

Start by reading this page.
Lots of good install, SWR, etc info there.

I looked at some of the info at that link. A lot of it is good info, but I wouldn't entirely trust it. I see that they recommend an 18 foot length of coax. That's a common misconception that the coax length needs to be a quarter, half, or full wave length. In reaity, the length of coax has nothing to do with performance other than the longer, the greater the loss of power.

Good quality shielded is the way to go. You can't buy the good stuff at radio Shack. Mini 8 is the way to go on it. The correct way to adjust SWR is to adjust antenna length. Most Firesticks have that adjustable nail in the end which makes for easy calibration.

You do need to have an SWR meter which means you'll need a short coax jumper. You'll want the SWR meter in line as close to the radio as possible.

Tune the radio to the frequency that you are most likely to use. If it's going to be an all around band, then tune to channel 20.

You'll key your mike to calibrate your SWR meter. Turn the knob to the calibration point on the meter and then unkey. Flip the switch on the meter and then rekey the mike. This will show you your Standing Wave Ratio. Examples are 2:1, 3:1, etc. To the layman, just know that the closer the needle is to being flat, the better your SWR is.

Anyway, this will get very long if I go through an entire radio installation. I don't mind doing it, but if there are specific questions, I could just answer them.

I might do a write-up for Wrangler Forum on CB installation that can cover the whole process, if anyone thinks it will be useful.

Sounds like a sticky.

http://www.arizonarockyroad.com/

tuffy makes a nice upper center console too...

i would love for you to do that write up and sticky it

I definatley need step-by-step instructions on this so if you could post them that would be great. Will any SWR meter work or do I have to get a certain kind? And the coax, is that to connect the radio to the antenna or the meter to the radio?

Yikes. OK.Give me a little time.I'll try to have someting together today or tomorrow. If I can'tfinish it, I'll come back to answer questions.

I need to get some pictures of where I mounted my CB. I'll try and get some tomorrow.

I'm working on writing something up. It's getting to be kinda long. I'm trying to shorten it up without losing anything.

Exactly. What's amazing to me is the number of companies that put that 18' coax recommendation drivel on their website, even FireStik is guilty of that.

Maybe it's because they are trying to sell coax too.

Update: I'm still working on a write-up. I haven't had the time the past couple days to put into it. I'm trying to cut all the needless information out. I have it about halfway done, but it's so long, I doubt anyone would read through the whole thing, and like I said, I have only written half. I hate reading very long posts, so I won't subject anyone else to it.

all you do is put the swr switch on the radio, then set the tuner to the right all the way then you set it to calibrate,then you turn it to channel 40 and key up see where the needle falls if it's in the green and red than it's good on the meter, now go to channel 1 and do the same thing, if a red light appears on the radio where the green light is than something is loose, check everything make sure you got a good ground. now if the meter reads the same on channel 1 then your good you do not have to go and get a swr meter it's already built into the radio, as for your antenna you don't need any that has adjustments to it makes setting the swr a pain in the ass. also any coax from any truckstop or radio shack will work as long as it is atleast 12' long also any extra cable left over witch you will, do not roll up loop it length wise if at all possible this also will affect the sending and recieveing and you really don't want that..........
Shotgun